Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Program notes for my recital this Friday

Hey All!

Here are my program notes for my recital, this Friday, November 22nd at 8 pm in Redpath Hall on the McGill campus. Please come if you are able or want a holiday in Montreal :) These notes follow the rules for note writing at McGill, hence no citations. My information was gathered from Grove, DMA and PhD dissertations, other scholarly articles, professional websites, and personal score study.

Programme Notes for Master
of Music in Oboe Performance Recital

Alana E. Henkel

Recital Date: 22 November 2013

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), son of Johann Sebastian
Bach, was a composer, Clavier player, court musician, and writer of Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu
spielen. In this treatise, we have a succinct discussion on how musicians
were to ornament during the Baroque era, although it received heavy criticism
since it did not agree with Johann Quantz. This affects how one interprets his Sonata for Oboe Solo in G minor, H. 562, Wq. 132 (originally for
flute in A minor). CPE Bach wrote this work (1747) while he was in service of
Frederick II, an amateur flutist and composer, for whom many of Quantz and CPE
Bach’s flute works were written. CPE Bach was underappreciated during his
lifetime because he never was awarded the title of virtuoso from the King.

This late
Baroque work with movements Poco Adagio, Allegro, and Allegro, is written as an
unaccompanied solo; because of this, the figured bass is often written within
the melody and the three movements feature contrasts between the lower and
upper registers of the oboe. All three movements are also heavily ornamented.
CPE Bach is known for writing out his preferred ornamentation, which contrasted
with Baroque composers’ tendencies to write skeletally so that the musician
could improvise his or her own ornaments. Bach did this for teaching purposes
and because he didn’t believe that musicians should ornament music unless they positively
enhance the original music. By writing in his own ornamentations, he did not
have to risk having musicians perform his works poorly. He also writes many
appoggiaturas. In his treatise, he states that they should be performed on the
beat and for a long duration as to create dissonance. This is where he disagreed
with Quantz, who believed appoggiaturas should be before the beat and quick in
duration.

***

Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896) was a Romantic virtuosic
pianist from Leipzig, Germany who in recent history has begun receiving
recognition for her compositional genius. She was trained as a pianist by her
father and began touring Europe at an early age, making her solo debut at age
eleven. In 1840, she married composer Robert Schumann. She continued to compose
and perform while raising their eight children. She and Robert had a
partnership in which they studied topics such as the pedal piano and
counterpoint of J.S. Bach. Robert often quoted her compositions in his
work—sometimes too much of her work to Clara’s annoyance.

Her Three
Romances for Violin, op. 22 was composed in 1855 for Joseph Joachim.
Brahms had hinted in a letter to Joachim that he would greatly enjoy his
Christmas present that year, which was this piece. Joachim and Clara took it on
a European tour and the piece was well received, especially by King George V of
Hanover. These Romances were written a year before Robert died. Robert was in a
mental institution for two years prior to his death in 1856 and Clara was not permitted
to visit until two days before his passing. During that time, she mainly
performed to earn money for her family, but she did compose the Romances, and
then only composed one more work after Robert’s death.

The first
movement, Andante molto, is a through-composed Romance in Db major. The oboe is
the main melodic instrument, but the piano does equal the oboe in melodic
importance in two sections and overshadows the oboe in melodic influence
shortly after the climax.The second
movement Allegretto starkly contrasts the first movement. It is written in ABA form,
with the “A” sections in G minor and the “B” section in G major. In this
movement, the piano propels the harmony through a chorale-like accompaniment,
only becoming a melodic force in the “B” section during a brief
call-and-response dialogue with the oboe. The third movement, Leidenschaftlich
schnell, is also in ABA form, “A” in Bb major and “B” in G major”. While the
movement is marked as “passionately fast,” it is written in a way where the
piano is expeditious, while the oboe floats a heartfelt melody on top of the
speed. The combination creates a movement that is both quick and unhurriedly
wistful.

***

Henri Tomasi (1901-1971) was a notable French
composer and conductor from the mid-twentieth century. He won the Prix de Rome
in 1927 and helped found the contemporary music group “Triton” with prominent
composers Prokofiev, Poulenc, Milhaud, and Honegger.

Évocations for solo oboe (1967) is dedicated to
Étienne Baudo, a student of Georges Gillet, and professor of oboe at the Paris
Conservatory from 1961-1973. In this work, Tomasi aurally describes women from around
the world in four movements: Peru (South America), Nigeria (Africa), Cambodia
(Asia), and Scotland (Europe). In each movement, he uses styles from parts of
each woman’s culture.

The opening
movement, Peruvienne, uses stylistic elements from the herranza and the huauco.
The herranza is a supernatural mourning
piece where a woman sings and plays a small drum. The opening (and reoccurring)
line mimics the small drum, while the short phrases with large legato intervals
mimic the vocal element of the herranza. The huauco is a communal labor
festival where performers play pipes and large drums. This is illustrated with
glissandi, fast turns, and diatonic phrases. These two contrasting styles are
interwoven to demonstrate the cultural variety of a Peruvian woman.

Nigerienne is
written in a five-part Rondo form in a cultural style called Ajogan. Queens use
the Ajogan to praise their husbands, slander their husband’s enemies, and to
highlight their lineage. In this style, women repeat their phrases so that the
audience can clearly understand what has been said. Tomasi repeats short
phrases to emphasize the story-telling role the oboe plays.

The third movement,
Cambodgienne (Apsaras) is a depiction of the pinn peat ensemble of southeast
Asia. This ensemble has approximately ten instruments, including drums,
xylophones, and gongs. It is used for a variety of purposes such as court
entertainment, shadow puppet plays, and religious ceremonies. Apsaras are women
who dance to the pinn peat ensemble. According to mythology, they are timeless
and beautiful female creatures who sing and dance for the gods. This movement alternates
between melodic and percussive elements of the pinn peat ensemble. The first
and third sections attempt to imitate a Cambodian scale by leaving out Cb and
at times, Gb. The middle section imitates the Roneat Ek, the “female” xylophone
instrument of the ensemble.

The final
movement, Ecossaise, includes the famous Scottish folk song, “Now simmer blinks
on flow’ry braes” by Robert Burns and a traditional jig, which contains short
quotes from “The Countess of Eglinton’s Delight.” The folk song is important to
Scottish culture and Robert Burns was an important nationalistic poet. The text
to this poem, which introduces the movement is:

Bonie lassie,
will ye go,

Will ye go, will
ye go?

Bonie lassie,
will ye go

To the birks of
Aberfeldy? (1787)

Birk is the
Scottish word for Beech tree, and this particular area overlooks the Falls of
Moness. It is a beautiful site in Scotland and the text is asking a woman to
visit this waterfall. The following jig is a celebratory form of entertainment,
and is written in the traditional detached 12/8 fiddle style.

***

Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) was a Swiss composer and
member of the Parisian group “Les Six,” which comprised of Poulenc, Milhaud,
Auric, Durey, Tailleferre, and himself. Honegger used this group for
companionship, as his compositional style is different than the other five
members. He studied at the Zürich and Paris Conservatories and is considered
one of the twentieth century’s most dedicated contrapuntists. His music is
described as tonal with an individual use of dissonance. His music was and is
still popular, with almost all of it recorded during his lifetime.

American
philanthropist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge commissioned Honegger’s Concerto
da Camera for flute, English horn, and string orchestra (1948). She
requested a chamber piece be written that featured English horn as a soloist.
She intended this work to be premiered by Louis Speyer, English horn of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. The concerto was actually premiered in 1949 by
Marcel Saillet on English horn, André Jaunet on flute, and Musicum Zürich
conducted by Paul Sacher.

Honegger’s
Concerto is comprised of three movements, Allegro amabile, Andante, and Vivace.
The piece as a whole is optimistic in style. The first movement is based on
three motives; the English horn introduces the lyrical motive, the flute then
introduces the spritely motive, and the intervallically distant motive is
introduced partway through the piece. The two instruments develop the first two
concepts together and separately, each time in longer phrases until the third
motive is introduced, then each instrument begins taking on a distinct
personality until the piece unites in unison.

Andante consists
of dissonances that flow in and out of one another. The theme is constructed in
two parts. The low strings introduce the first part, while the flute then
continues the second. This elongated melody is repeated throughout the
movement, mainly by the strings and English horn with flute floating in a
mournful obbligato, and finally, in dialogue between the flute and English
horn.

The final
movement, Vivace, is an intervallic romp, which showcases the technical
abilities of a flutist. The melody reminds one of a jig, but it contrasts with
soaring lines that harken us back to the first movement of the concerto.
Throughout the textural excitement, Honegger includes contemplative moments
that may be perceived as quiet inside jokes.

The work as a
whole is orchestrated in ways that showcase the exemplary attributes of the
flute and English horn.

***

Concerto No. 1 in D minor (1776-1777)by Ludwig August Lebrun
(1752-1757) is a classical concerto composed for Lebrun himself to perform.
Lebrun was a famous oboe virtuoso. He was a member of the Mannheim Court
Orchestra beginning at age fifteen for Elector Karl Theodor. His playing was
described by The Mercure in 1779 as velvety, sweet, and having perfect
execution. Schubart described him as “a genuine musical genius.” In his
lifetime, he wrote six oboe concerti and performed in France, Germany, Austria,
Italy, and England.

This concerto
consists of Allegro, Grazioso, and Rondo. The first movement, Allegro is in the
classical sonata-allegro form. It is introduced in d minor, modulates to the
relative major of F, and then is recapitulated in d minor. The Grazioso is a
lyrical aria in ABA form in F major. The final Rondo is, as it is labeled, in
Rondo form. It is mainly in D major with a short modulation to d minor during
the “C” section. This section uses the same “alla turca” rhythm in the celli
and bass that was used by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven during this time.

Lebrun’s
concerto reveals how talented he actually was. The first movement uses the
third octave F twice. Mozart’s Oboe Quartet K. 370, composed in 1781, also
utilizes this note, but this range of the oboe is so extreme that one rarely
finds it in classical works. However, Lebrun was writing for himself and he
decided to showcase the extent of his personal tessitura. He also featured
lyricism, quick articulations, room for ornamentation, and places in each
movement for the oboist’s own cadenzas.